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Master Cl ass Veneer opens a world of possibilities for the woodworker. Because most of the best wood is made directly into veneer, you'll find more species, colors and patterns in veneer than you'll ever find in the selection at the lumberyard. Veneering also allows you to design the surface of a piece independently of its underlying structure, allowing cross-grain patterns that would be unstable if made of solid wood. To get tl1e most out of a veneer pattern, you must know how to arrange leaves correctly, not only matching the grain pattern BY KIM CARLE TON GRA VES Veneer a reverse-diamond pattern SLI P-MATCH PANELS AN D TR IM CORN ERS To start you need four identically sized sheets of veneer, their dimensions determined by the radius of your tabletop. Label the veneer leaves. It's very important to record their original order and orientation. Stack the four new sheets faceup and in order. Cut away triangles from the ends If your leaves of veneer aren't wide enough, slip-match them to create wider sheets. radius 2.31 x SIMPLE JOINTING JIG DOES DOUBLE·DUTY The jig is simply two layers of %-in.-thick MDF with registration pins to keep the front edges flush. Clamps hold the layers together. EDGE-JOINTING -------------0.83 x radius of tabletop but also taking pattern jump and light refraction into consideration. The reverse diamond laid up for this round tabletop owes its success to all of these factors. Grain pattern changes subtly with each leaf in a flitch, but there's usually a big difference, or "jump," between the first and last leaves. In a diamond, sunburst or other similar pattern, laying out the leaves sequentially around the outside places the first leaf next to the last. In this reversediamond pattern, I stagger the layout to minimize pattern jump. Refraction is similar to the light-dark pat- 102 FINE WOODWORKING Registration pin Joint the leaves with a router. Tape the stack of veneer in position between the two layers of the jig and clamp along the front edge. A ¥.rin.dia. bearing-guided straight bit cuts the veneer flush. Use climbing cuts-and multiple passes if there is more than in. to be removed. ;s Tape the stack of four leaves in position. Draw a line on the bottom layer of the jig to locate the veneer. 45° Drawings, except where noted, Michael Pekovich; this page (bottom two} Vince Babak